PART II: Legal, Treaty and Environmental Obligations for Copper and Nickel Mining
What more are we willing to sacrifice in terms of what we’re able to eat, drink and breathe in order to provide some – perhaps a lot – of short-term construction work – along with far fewer full time, permanent jobs?
These are but a few questions that require some deep and introspective thinking and evaluating by millions of people who surely want clean air and water and unadulterated food, but who have, through no fault of their own, found themselves unemployed, limited in their training and education to the work they did before and eager to earn a living for themselves and their families.
Projects like the PolyMet Copper-Nickel Mine project well north of the Twin Cities make for such a seductive venture for economic development types hungry for what they see as job-producing. The mine would be dug smack in the middle of the Superior National Forest, in what is called the Duluth Complex – a relatively untapped lode of these metals – the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation.
But the short- and long-term damage this particular mine – worse than some others – is palpable, according to the EPA. The operation will “liberate” sulfides and sulfates from the rock excavated to reach the mother lode, and in turn, those chemicals, then turn to sulfur when exposed to air and turn the waters of some of the last remaining wild-rice fields in the world to crop-killing acid.
Some local state representatives, senators, mostly Democrats last year, and joining them this year – Republican majorities – and even Amy Klobuchar and former Congressman Jim Oberstar, endorse the project and angrily dismiss worried environmental groups and the Fond du Lac tribe’s arguments and even the Environmental Protection Agency’s lowest environmental rating as just so much hot air (as if job-killing were an active agenda for clean water and food). Besides, they say, almost seven years and $24 million later, it’s time to listen to the company’s assurances and move ahead with the mining.
The company isn’t much talking, except that their primary lobbyist has labeled liars those who have argued against granting this mine a permit. That lobbyist, Joe Samargia, a well-known former jobs commissioner for Governor Rudy Perpich and a former Iron Range Steelworkers union leader, declined to appear this week to defend his employer, PolyMet Mining. And, further we can only consult their website for what is little more than a marketing pitch.
TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and MICHELLE ALIMORADI talk again with those who argue against this project, citing the EPA’s rejection of the company’s environmental impact statement (EIS) as inadequately projecting the effects of the mining on the surrounding waters.
GUESTS:
PAULA MACCABEE – Attorney, Water Legacy
FMR SEN. JIM CARLSON – Author, SF 2349 (2010), providing for financial assurance for nonferrous metallic mineral minin
BRUCE JOHNSON – Retired MPCA Staff and Northern Minnesota constituent
PETER ERLINDER – Professor of Constitutional Law and author of a paper on Minnesota’s treaty history
BOB TAMMEN – Retired Mine Worker
INVITED: Representative of the Fond du Lac Tribe of Lake Superior Chippewa
Thanks once more to DIADRA DECKER – Water Legacy Activist
[FYI: An annual Mother Earth Water Walk is beginning in the three oceans and gulf surrounding North America, converging in June at Bad River, Wisconsin, where water carried from those four corners is merged with Lake Superior. Details at the website for this event. You can follow along and pick up the walk at a convenient place along the way when it comes through your area.]